Difference Between 10 and 25 Man Tanking - What do?

[Sal the Shieldhog]

Alright, so here's my question: What's the main difference(es) between Warrior tanking in 10 and 25 man raiding? I mostly raid 10 mans, but I'm looking to get into a 25 man group for next patch.

I know with 10 mans, gearing is a little more flexible because the bosses don't hit quite as hard. Do 25 man tanks just stack stamina after hitting the hit/exp caps? Or do you guys go for parry/dodge as well (talking next patch here)? One of the few tanks I've talked has said, just in general, exp/stam gems in red sockets, stam in blues/prismatics, and mastery/stam in yellows. Is that all set to change in 5.4?

I'd also like to know if there's anything I could do to improve myself as a tank in general. I have logs from earlier tonight, and my armory is in my signature (I picked up Horridon's Helm, not TF sadly, because I know parry/dodge are going to be good next patch - just finished my Secrets earlier too, so getting my new meta gem!). I think I've been doing most things correctly, but then again, I'm not entirely sure.

The set-up we go with (usually changes depending on who's on) is Me/DK/monk tanking, priest/shaman/monk/paladin healing, and DPS varies wildly (mostly alts, so whatever people feel like bringing that night).

Thanks for the help, and I look forward to your replies!

[Gliff]

As far as next patch goes, noone is 100% sure what the best way to go is. There are some of us who have extensive time on PTR and I'm sure there will be a couple different strats for gemming/trinkets.

I personally will be going avoidance>Crit>mastery.

[Deleted]

I am thinking of this questions too. For 25 and especially HC Mastery-Hardcap > Crit > Avoid seems to be the way to go. SB giving you 2/3 of your tanking time a 60% damage reduce and even from the last 1/3 without SB you have another 32 or 33% block resulting in about 3/4 of all attacks beeing reduced by 60%. Also 25 man raids do not rely on tank damage, which makes me think that 10 mans might prefer an avoid setup. Sitting on roughly 20k avoid rating resulting in 25% crit additional to base crit and 5% critbuff is massive. Seems like a quite cool way to give your raid some protection dps although the incoming damage will not be as smooth as with the mastery setup but as we are talking about 10 man it won't be that high too.

Really looking forward to 5.4 going live.

[Valech]

Since nothing is sure for the coming patch, I only can give you a general answer. Currently you will ONLY go for Stamina if you tank 25 man HEROIC. Even in 25 man normal Mastery is superior. How strong stamina will be with 5.4 is, as stated above, unclear.
Also, Shieldblock gains a tiny bit of importance with hard hitting physical bosses. Since SBlock will always mitigate 30% or 60% of the incoming damage, SBarrier scales only with your revenge. And since it was nerfed a few patches ago, not even as good as it used to scale.

[Deleted]

Since nothing is sure for the coming patch, I only can give you a general answer. Currently you will ONLY go for Stamina if you tank 25 man HEROIC. Even in 25 man normal Mastery is superior. How strong stamina will be with 5.4 is, as stated above, unclear.
Also, Shieldblock gains a tiny bit of importance with hard hitting physical bosses. Since SBlock will always mitigate 30% or 60% of the incoming damage, SBarrier scales only with your revenge. And since it was nerfed a few patches ago, not even as good as it used to scale.

Gliff and I both raid 25 and neither of us will be going for stamina

[Valech]

Gliff and I both raid 25 and neither of us will be going for stamina

next patch that is?

[Sal the Shieldhog]

So if I'm doing 10s, I should just be going all out dodge/parry/mastery? That'd be the best DPS/survival way to do it, right?

Can anyone look through my logs and tell me how I'm doing, as far as those go? I felt a little squishy on Megaera last night, though I'm not sure if that's because I am or if I have to time S. Barrier on the breaths better.

- - - Updated - - -

Thanks for all the replies for next patch, by the way. You guys are super helpful <3

EDIT: Just got my Meta gem and the new helm all set up. Just went with the tank one, as 5.4 is releasing in less than a week and a half and I don't feel like dropping a few thousand gold for something I won't get much more benefit from.

[Gliff]

next patch that is?

Correct. In Throne we both went stam on progression. Next patch I believe we are both going avoidance.

This all may change though.

[Valech]

So if I'm doing 10s, I should just be going all out dodge/parry/mastery? That'd be the best DPS/survival way to do it, right?

Can anyone look through my logs and tell me how I'm doing, as far as those go? I felt a little squishy on Megaera last night, though I'm not sure if that's because I am or if I have to time S. Barrier on the breaths better.

- - - Updated - - -

Thanks for all the replies for next patch, by the way. You guys are super helpful <3

EDIT: Just got my Meta gem and the new helm all set up. Just went with the tank one, as 5.4 is releasing in less than a week and a half and I don't feel like dropping a few thousand gold for something I won't get much more benefit from.

For THIS patch it is for 10 man: Hit 7,5% = Exp 15% > Mastery > Parry > Dodge.
NEXT patch it will PROBABLY be Hit 7,5% = Exp 15% > Parry > Dodge > Mastery